Russel L. Hanson
Professor Emeritus

Professor Hanson's interests are at the intersection of political philosophy and American politics. He focuses upon the historical development of liberalism in the United States and its effect on democratic forms of politics. Federalism is a related concern, and Professor Hanson has investigated the political dynamics of social welfare policy in the American states, as well as questions of equity raised by the wide variation in state programs. His current projects include studies of the evolution of American federalism, 19th century constitutional thought, and post-Civil War reform ideologies. Professor Hanson teaches courses on state and local politics in the United States, American political thought, and modern political thought. He is the author of The Democratic Imagination in America (1985), and the co-editor of Political Innovation and Conceptual Change (1989), Reconsidering the Democratic Public (1993), and Politics in the American States (2012). Professor Hanson's articles have appeared in the Journal of Politics, American Journal of Political Science, Publius, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and elsewhere. He was a Fellow at the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science, Palo Alto.